


Transitions

by pentapus



Category: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells
Genre: F/M, I swear that's a thing, It's gen - there's just pairings in it, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-09
Updated: 2013-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-22 22:26:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/918736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pentapus/pseuds/pentapus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You are not going to get stolen,” Jade said. It was almost the only thing she’d said since it’d happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transitions

Moon wasn’t going to admit it to Jade, but the first thing he thought when he saw the consort under the overhang, surrounded by worried Arbora and Jade, her spines pressed flat and quivering in concern, was that _now_ she’d finally realize she wanted a traditional consort, one she could protect and take care of. His stomach flipped over.

Then again, judging by the wary look she shot him, she probably knew exactly what he was thinking. 

Heart and Merit had wedged themselves into the little hollow with the consort, easier because they were in groundling form. The consort was a compact shadow of black scales and cramped wings next to their brightly colored clothing.

“How does this keep happening?” Merit was saying, flipping through a book resting on Heart’s lap.

“The other time made a little sense,” Heart said, mystified, “and Opal Night had at least heard of it –”

“This makes just as much sense,” Merit said exasperated.

“And why does it keep happening to _me_ ,” the consort mumbled into his knees, which was about the same time that Moon realized that the consort was Chime.

**

“I’m going to have to find a _queen_ ,” Chime moaned into Moon’s bed. Heart patted his back consolingly. He’d finally shifted to groundling, and he didn’t look any different. Moon kept having to remind himself what Chime was upset about. Jade stood in the corner of the bowers, arms crossed awkwardly over her chest. 

“You don’t need to find a queen if you don’t want to,” Moon said.

“It isn’t so bad,” Heart said encouragingly. “Moon found a queen.”

Moon eyed her suspiciously. That didn’t sound like a compliment.

“If I don’t find a queen, one will just take me. I’ll wake up one day, and I’ll have been _taken care of_. That’s what happens to consorts.” Moon gave him an alarmed look. He suspected he was hearing more truth than anybody would have admitted to him when they were trying to convince him to stay. Chime’s head popped up, hair in disarray. “I’m going to get _stolen_.”

“You are not going to get stolen,” Jade said. It was almost the only thing she’d said since it’d happened.

Moon’s skin crawled. “You don’t have to worry about it – Jade can just take you.” 

Everybody stopped talking. Moon didn’t understand, since he’d been sleeping with both of them, separately and together for over a year, but he added as a guess: “I don’t mind.”

“That’s not – I can’t take him. He’s related to me.” Jade wrinkled her nose in distaste and then looked embarrassed. She clutched at her elbows.

Moon stared at her. Yesterday Chime had had almost his entire hand inside of her, and she had seemed pretty happy about it.

“He smells wrong,” Jade said. “It’s – not good.”

Chime took a deep breath and looked startled. “You smell different! Well, I mean the same, but today it’s – not good.”

“So there are no queens here who can take you.”

“Well,” Jade said. ”Pearl.”

“ _Pearl_?”

“No,” Chime said.

“We’re related through Rain, not Pearl.”

“She’s not that bad,” Heart said weakly.

“She likes _traditional_ consorts, and yes, she is that bad!” Chime gave Moon a white-faced look, his breath picking up, and Moon thought they were a few moments from another cave-hiding incident. “I don’t want to be taken by Pearl.”

Moon had no idea what to do, except that he wanted Chime to stop panicking – both for Chime’s benefit and for Moon’s. It made it really hard to solve the problem. He shifted and jumped onto the bed, nearly sweeping Heart out of the way, and lay over Chime, holding him down. His wings came up over them like a shroud. Chime pulled into himself like he was trying to hide under Moon, but his breathing slowed down. 

“I don’t want to be Pearl’s consort,” he said after a moment.

“Ok. You can be my consort.”

“That isn’t how it works,” Chime said, wriggling a little deeper under Moon. “I’ll have to go to another colony. Maybe Stone knows a nice one with queens who don’t fight too much – and who like reading.”

Moon growled in frustration.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Chime, we can’t send you to another colony,” Jade said. She’d grabbed the edge of Moon’s wing and moved it away to peer in at the top of Chime’s head. The shell lights added warm highlights to his hair.

“Why not?” Chime frowned. “You don’t think a queen would want me?” 

“Because we’d have to tell them that you were a consort who’d been a warrior who’d been a mentor! And that we couldn’t really even promise that you’d still _be_ a consort this time next turn.” She added, “And I don’t trust them to understand that.”

Moon felt Chime relax underneath him and tentatively pulled back his wings. Chime sat up, batting at Jade as she awkwardly ruffled his hair. It seemed like the worst had passed for now, though Moon was half-afraid that when she found out, Frost was going to volunteer herself as an overlooked, eligible queen in need of consort. He decided he’d… wait before bringing that up to Chime, even as a joke.

“And look on the bright side,” Heart said, smiling, “maybe next time you’ll turn into a queen.”

“Ugh,” Chime said, “and then I’d have to fight Jade for Moon.”

“ _What_?” Jade said dangerously.

“ _What_?” Moon said dangerously.

**Author's Note:**

> This story was brought to you by a line in [Children of the New Court](http://archiveofourown.org/works/559307), in which Chime wishes he and Moon could have mentor babies together*. As soon as I pictured consort!Chime, I thought of 3 things:  
> 1) his independence would no longer be socially acceptable (to Chime or other Raksura)  
> 2) infertility-as-a-norm probably affects a culture's incest taboos- and also natural obstacles (e.g. attractiveness)  
> 3) If Chime turned into a queen next, there'd be some trouble with the current Moon custody agreement.
> 
> I wrote those three things down, and then the story ended! I felt so productive!
> 
> *And also by the fact that Dusk has still not shown up in the Malachite and Dusk story I am trying to write. I am starting to take it personally.


End file.
